The invention relates to a carrier platform consisting of a transport frame and support plates especially designed for the transport of motor vehicles being manufactured through assembly tests and other work stations. The vehicle remains with the platform during the assembly, testing and other operations performed at various test stations.
During manufacturing and especially during final assembly, motor vehicles are transported through various test stations by means of in-line and cross or transfer conveyors which interconnect the individual test stations. The platform or skid remains with the vehicle during the test procedure at the respective test or work station even after separation from the motor vehicle. After completion of the tests and/or adjustments, the vehicle is either transported to the next test station or it may be driven away under its own power over and off of the supporting skid out of the last test station. This is also possible in the event of a breakdown, either in the area of final assembly or at one of the intermediate test stations, particularly if the checking stations in the assembly line are not arranged sequentially but laterally next to each other and the means of conveyance between the checking stations runs transverse to the longitudinal direction of the main assembly line. A facility of this type is disclosed in European Patent Specification No. 0 134 255.
In the aforementioned disclosure, the motor vehicle is transported through the interconnected checking stations by means of supports with wheels in rebound condition or by means of movable metal plates when the wheels are in jounce position. In order to make sure that motor vehicles transported with wheels in jounce position can be freed from the skid that remains in the test station, slots are provided in these plates through which means of support can reach and can act upon the vehicle wheels while metal support plates are moved to free the vehicle wheels. Subsequently the motor vehicle is set down with its wheels upon the test facility by lowering the aforementioned means of support. We are dealing here with a "closed-in skid" considering the state of the art at the time whereby the openings through which the vehicle wheels protrude should be freed.